Use a self-review checklist for stored procedure changes: realistic data, plans, IO, NULL inputs, clean rollback, and a ready recovery script.
SQL SERVER – Find Nth Highest Salary of Employee – Query to Retrieve the Nth Maximum value
How do you find the Nth Highest Salary of an employee? I link my earlier answers and share reader Pravin Phatangare’s simple TOP query for the 6th highest salary.
What to Alert On, and What to Let Sleep
Make SQL Server alerting actionable by tying thresholds to impact, checking missing work, reducing duplicates, and reviewing every overnight call.
SQL SERVER – Popular Articles of SQLAuthority Blog
Readers often ask about the most popular articles on my blog. Two stand out: SQL Server coding standards and guidelines, and interview questions and answers.
SQL SERVER – Introduction to Heap Structure – What is Heap?
What is Heap? When table data has no logical order and no clustered index, SQL Server stores it as a Heap Structure. I explain pages and extents too.
SQL SERVER – 2005 – List All Column With Identity Key In Specific Database
Question I received in Email : How to list all the columns in the database which are used as identity key in my database?
SQL SERVER – Introduction to sys.dm_exec_query_optimizer_info
While browsing Books Online I found sys.dm_exec_query_optimizer_info, which returns statistics about the query optimizer to help you tune a workload.
SQL Server slow? Let's fix it together in about four hours.
In my Comprehensive Database Performance Health Check, you share your screen, I guide you, and we fix your biggest performance troublemakers. No passwords. No remote access.
You keep every script, and the know-how to fix it yourself next time.
Want your whole team to learn it?
My Practical Workshop has no PowerPoint, just live demos. My AI Enablement Workshop shows your team where AI saves hours, and where it quietly costs them.
Over 400 customers have worked with me this way, and not one shared a password. See all consulting options.
Who We Are
Pinal Dave is an SQL Server Performance Tuning Expert and independent consultant with over 24 years of hands-on experience. He holds a Masters of Science degree and numerous database certifications.
Pinal has authored 19 books and 120 Pluralsight courses. To freely share his knowledge and help others build their expertise, Pinal has also written more than 5,800 database tech articles on his blog at https://blog.sqlauthority.com.
Pinal is also a CrossFit Level 1 Trainer (CF-L1) and CrossFit Level 2 Trainer (CF-L2).
Nupur Dave is a social media enthusiast and an independent consultant. She primarily focuses on the database domain, helping clients build short and long-term multi-channel campaigns to drive leads for their sales pipeline.
Shaivi Pinalkumar Dave is a book author and a women’s artistic gymnast.

